So I Guess UPS Has Just Stopped Delivering To My House?

Since signing up with UPS My Choice a couple months ago, Consumerist reader Stephanie has seen her UPS service slow down, first delivering 2-day packages on the third day, and for the last few weeks, simply not delivering at all.

After years as a happy customer of Amazon Prime’s free two-day shipping, Stephanie noticed that UPS began requiring a signature on deliveries rather than leaving them at her doorstep like they had before. This meant she wasn’t getting the Prime benefit she paid an annual fee for.

So she signed up for UPS My Choice, which allowed her to select a preference that signatures need not be required.

“Soon after that, my packages started arriving after 3 days instead of 2,” she tells Consumerist. “Not a huge deal, but at the same time, I pay for Prime, so I am paying for 2-day shipping. Additionally, sometimes, I absolutely need the item delivered on time; if an item arrives on Thursday and I needed it Wednesday, that’s not very useful.”

But that minor annoyance was nothing compared to what’s happened in recent weeks.

On Sept. 25, she placed an order on Amazon and it was sent out, via UPS 2-day for delivery on Sept. 27. She waited until the 28th, at which point UPS claimed it had been delivered on the 27th. It hadn’t, so Amazon issued a refund.

Then on Oct. 2, she ordered two more items from Amazon, one of which shipped via UPS and one by FedEx. The package from FedEx arrived on time on Oct. 4, the same day that UPS claimed to deliver her package. Except it hadn’t.

“I contacted Amazon, and they asked me to wait until the 6th to see if it would still arrive,” writes Stephanie. “It didn’t. Amazon told me that UPS told them that the package was lost in transit, and they were sending me another one with 1-day shipping at no charge, and that they would give me a promotional credit.”

That package was supposed to arrive on the 9th, but since today is the 10th and you’re reading this on Consumerist, you can probably guess that it did not show up — in spite of the claim on the UPS website saying it was delivered yesterday at 3:30 p.m.

So Stephanie contacted both UPS and Amazon.

To UPS, I explained that none of the packages they were shipping were arriving at all, that this was a new problem, and that this wasn’t happening with other carriers. They told me that Amazon preferred to handle shipping problems, and that I should contact Amazon. I explained to Amazon that this was the third time that a package had not been delivered, that this was only a problem with UPS, and that I was very unhappy to be paying for Prime and yet not actually receiving any items. They refunded the purchase, and said that they would forward my feedback to UPS.

She says that because of her busy schedule and lack of car, Amazon Prime has long been an easy way for her to get the items she needs without having to take the time to go shopping at bricks-and-mortar retailers. But this shipping problem has her questioning her future with the online retailer.

“I’m really not happy with the responses I’ve gotten so far,” says Stephanie. “Amazon has offered no solutions besides refunding me for purchases that never arrive, and I don’t feel confident that UPS will really care about the problem, since they just redirected me back to Amazon in the first place.”

As for the possibility that someone is stealing packages left in her apartment building’s mailroom, Stephanie points out that the has been receiving deliveries from FedEx without any pilfering.

“The only explanations I can think of are that UPS is just not delivering the packages,” she writes, “or someone has been stealing all of the packages delivered by UPS addressed to me.”